Minecraft Server VPS

Who it suits

Java Edition players: a world for friends, with Bukkit and Spigot plugins if you want them. Bedrock players (phones, consoles) need an extra plugin such as Geyser, and Forge or Fabric modpacks need a different server.

Which plan

Standard (4 GB) gives Paper 3 GB, comfortable for a handful of players with few plugins. Extreme (8 GB) gives it 6 GB, for more players, more plugins or a longer view distance. What a server holds depends on the world, plugins and settings, so we don't promise a player count: watch memory and tick rate, and resize when you need to.

What we install

The latest stable Paper build in /opt/minecraft, checked against its published SHA-256, with the Java version that build asks for. A systemd unit runs it as its own user and gives Paper three quarters of the server's memory. Accept Mojang's EULA once and start it.

From order to ready

1. Server ready. We email you when the server is running, and you can log in with SSH. The installer starts on that same first boot.
2. Installer running. It logs to /var/log/vps9-setup.log; tail -f it to watch.
3. Application ready. This can be minutes after SSH works. The installer writes its exit code to /var/lib/vps9-setup.exit; a value of 0 means installation succeeded. The install is done when /opt/minecraft/paper.jar and the minecraft service exist. The game server doesn't start until you accept the EULA.

What you still do

1. Read the EULA, then set eula=true in /opt/minecraft/eula.txt.
2. Run systemctl enable --now minecraft.
3. Connect to your server's IPv4 on port 25565.

Exposure and security

TCP port 25565 is open. Minecraft has no server password: anyone who finds the address can join unless you set white-list=true in server.properties and list your players. The unit runs Paper as the minecraft user, never as root.

Backups and upgrades

Paper builds and plugins are yours to update: stop the server, back up, swap the jar, start it. A new Minecraft version changes the world for good, so back up first. Copy the world folders off the server; the consistent way is stop, copy, start. We run the hardware, the network and the first-boot install; after that, Minecraft (Paper) is yours to run, and we don't manage or update it for you. Off-site backups of the whole disk are an optional paid add-on; they copy the disk as it is at one moment, so keep the app's own backups as well.